Car Guys and Car Girls of high school: unite! Most high schools had ‘em and I asked you for your fondest memories of them. Heck, most of the time That Car Guy was you. Color me surprised, and by surprised I mean not at all.

1. Boy was a notoriously bad driver. We’ll call him “Fatslice” (he was actually twig slender, despite a steady diet of fat pizza slices and sour gummy worms). Between all of us in high school, everyone would volunteer to drive, instead of letting Fatslice drive us around. — One day at lunch, we were all eating by the usual spot at the stairs. Talking about how heavy it rained yesterday. Another friend, we’ll call him “Pillsbury,” mentioned an accident he drove past yesterday, through the torrential rain. He was giggling to himself as he said, “yeah man, I just saw a 300ZX (Z32) wrapped around the lamp pole going down Azusa. That guy must’ve gotten fucked up!” Fatslice answered back, “Motherfucker! That was me!” He later got an MA70 Supra, which ended up catching on fire while driving down the 60 fwy towards Riverside.

2. There was “Gatz.” I’ve known Gatz forever. I’d usually hang out at his place, playing Moonwalker or Shinobi 3 on his Mega Drive, or reading Dragon Quest or Ranma 1/2 comics. His dad was retired, and was well-off enough. His mom would always drop us off in Anaheim for Anime Expo in her E30 BMW, she’d always wear gloves while driving. When he got old enough to drive, he’d take out his dad’s Merc 500 SEL, or a few times in a Porsche 911 Speedster (964). When Gatz got kicked out of the house after a stint with Asian gangs, then the marines academy, he basically worked and survived on his own to get a red 1994 MR2 (SW20). Eventually, that car got built up with a 3S-GTE, JIC Magic FLT coil-overs, Rays Engineering wheels. It was gorgeous, clean. I need to look for the magazine, but it was featured in a Japanese magazine. It wasn’t Option or Drift Tengoku. It’s been so long, I forgot the title. But Gatz was around the LA Import scene enough that he got me in to the first D1 Drift Gran Prix event at Irwindale as staff/vendor. We met a lot legends. Nobuteru (Nob - No One Better) Taniguchi . Tsuchiya. Dai, the “God” of tuning, founder of Option Magazine. Since then, Gatz has had an MR-S, an Elise 111R, an Audi RS5, and now a R35 GT-R. He did it working his ass off, self-made, school drop out.

3. Another friend, we’ll call him “Dishes.” His mom got him a Rav4. It was a bayside blue kind of color. He hated that he got that car. He was totally more of a Prelude or Supra kind of guy. He would commute every morning listening to DJ Shadow, and to the stacks of free promotional mixtapes of Eminem and Kurupt that we would get from A&M Records. Still, he built up and body kitted the shit out of that Rav4. I believe he got plenty of sponsors, such as “Pray to the god of Bomex: I hope your speed over your rival.” When you saw that Rav4, you knew it had to be Dishes. He eventually grew up building Scion show cars, a lot of Scion xB stuff. He drives a 3-series and is more of a family man now.

4. Sax. We’ll call this guy Sax (for saxophone player). His parents got him an Impreza GC8. That car has been through several kinds of hell. I’d drove up through Glendora Mountain Road a lot with Sax, maybe more so than with my other friend Gatz. But Sax would also take his Impreza out to the El Mirage dry lake bed, so he could practice drifting. I went with him once. Make sure the air conditioning is set to interior re-circulate, because all that dirt and sand gets through and blows into the interior! He went so much, he blew the motor because it became so contaminated with dirt and grime. Sax would get obsessed with driving. Another one of our friends would say, “I’m not Sax. I don’t see the entire world as a racing circuit.” Sax would speed and braking duel every corner like it was a battle. Even if he was just driving us in a Toyota minivan. That Impreza, would get EJ20 turbo, taken from a Subaru Legacy front clip. He self-installed just about everything. He also owed money to Dishes, for parts he never finished paying for. He has flipped and rolled that Impreza driving through the backroads in Malibu, and broke his arm. Despite the abuse, that GC8 is still somehow running. Even as you can smell the gasoline ‘cause the motor hasn’t been tuned, and it runs so damn rich. He has had to keep an extra canister of gasoline in the trunk, because the fuel gauge doesn’t work.

5. Rothschild. Rothschild drove a new Supra in high school. Brand new. JZA80. He would refer to that Supra as red car. He purposely bought the car NA, 2JZ-GE, as he planned to build it from the ground up. HKS parts, blow-off valve, Advan AVS wheels. He estimated that the car would output 900 hp. Except he was too cheap to pay for a proper installation and tuning of the HKS vein pressure converter. So it rested around, unfinished. I remember bringing the first season of Initial D over to watch with a bunch of other friends (and in a Cantonese dub, with English subtitles bootleg no less). Rothschild never finished building that Supra. A few months later, I go to hang out with Rothschild and some buddies, and basically picked up a 1985 Corolla hatchback GT-S, AE86. That Supra basically sat in the driveway, as he spent all his time and resources building and driving that AE86. The car got repainted in panda white paint scheme at Maaco. He would freaken weld in his own roll cage and make his own strut bars. Install his own TRD shortshifter and bushings kit. This guy was SUPER DIY guy. I used to think I drove decently proficient and fast, but Rothschild was far beyond my level. It was always fun to ride along with Rothschild. He went blew through the original 4A-GE motor, than a silver top 20 valve AE101 engine, AND a black top 20 valve AE111.

There is one car guy who comes to mind. He was really a DIY mechanic by necessity; his family didn’t have a lot of money, so whenever something broke, he was the one who fixed it. Appliances, plumbing, electrical, cars, whatever. He inherited a ‘49 Buick Super Eight from a family friend, and that became his project, when time and money allowed. It was a beautiful car; it had sat in a garage for about 25 years before he got it. 3-speed column-shifted manual, and an inline 8-cylinder engine. Once he got it running, he let me drive it so I could learn to drive stick. It made me sad when he had to sell the car.

I was that guy in high school that drove an Opel GT with no brakes... but I made her a lot better during high school. Now I’m a junior in college and have 3 of these darn cars! We call this Opelitis, it cannot be cured.

My red GT is still kicking after being abused by me in Highschool. I had no idea what the heck I was doing, I broke everything, but I always fixed it. I never let that car go more than a 48hrs without going on the road. She’s a pretty fast little fella now that my high school days are over. Okay maybe not fast, a Camry is probably faster, but it feels like a rocket burning rubber with one wheel and blasting through curves on country roads or getting up to highway speed on the on ramps. She’s bored to 2.0L with a 1984 Opel Kadett head, lightened flywheel, headers, bigger carb, and lots of creature comfort and handling upgrades too.

The orange one is my off-road toy, don’t think about it too hard, it doesn’t make sense to me either. Yes it’s painted with rhinoliner, but it’s really fun and I can’t scratch it at all lol.

Back in high school I had an S10 with the 4.3. I used to race the guys with tired old Foxbody Mustangs and would usually come close to them. One guy raced me a few times on a road that had ‘speed humps’ and I would drive over them at speed, so that was always easy.

There was, however, one real quiet guy with a dirt brown Mustang that looked pretty clean besides being repainted an ugly color. I would pass his house on the way to the highway to get to school, and we’d often pull onto the highway together. I would floor it, he would floor it, and within ten seconds he’d be out of sight. I think the car ran elevens. He was probably the truest car guy at my school.

“that car guy” was me — not because that’s what I think, that’s litteraly what people called me.

1st car, sophomore year. 1984 Porsche 944. I paid a whooping $1700 for that car and sold it six months later for exactly $100 more than a paid for it. It was exactly like you’d imagine a sub 2k Porsche.

2nd car, junior year. 1986 Porsche 944 (see a trend?). I actually spent a pretty penny on this car, it was arguably one of the nicest 944s for sale in Texas at the time. Still drive it today, it’s been an awesome car.

3rd car, still a junior. 1992 Lexus LS400. I was a fledgling business owner and needed something that could eat up miles on the toll road. Paid $1,800 for it and immediately had the starter go out and set me back a grand. It’s been somewhat reliable since then (I blame the sketchy shop that didn’t know what they were doing and broke EVERYTHING when they took out the starter).

So yeah, I was the car guy. Never did figure out women, but at least I had two cars.

There was this one guy at my high school. His first car (purchased in 1999) was a 1980 El Camino Conquista. It was beige/bronze with power windows/locks and working A/C - he was so proud of it. He also thought a 305 V8 made it a drag car. Idiot. Well, after about 8 months he blew the engine (big shock). What no one expected was him turning it into his auto shop project. 5 months later it emerged from the shop with a 10.5:1 compression aluminum headed 468 BBC, TH-400, and a 12 bolt rear end with a Detroit locker. It was properly quick, still unassuming beige/bronze, and the power locks/windows and A/C still worked. That was his sophomore year.

His junior year, he inherited his grandmother’s old 1984 Oldsmobile 98 Regency. He then shoved a 1970 Olds 455 and TH-400 in it. It was worked over enough to run high 13's in the quarter mile with a little bit of giggle juice. Not the quickest car ever...but the big land yacht caught a lot of folks off guard.

To a degree, I was. First, I had a 2000 Celica that I put projector headlights (with running lights) on, and blacked out the taillights. Then, I had an 04, V6, automatic Mustang that I put dual exhaust on, blacked out the headlights and the taillights and gave it HID’s. Then, I had the world’s loudest, raspiest, broken-est Neon SRT-4. That was sophomore, junior, later junior year respectively. I’d say overall it was a good learning experience. Looking back on my first two cars I’m genuinely embarrassed. Now I’m graduating college and have a Mazdaspeed3 with no aesthetic modifications.

Oh man, high school. When I was in high school I could’nt have cared less about cars. I knew they were valuable as forms of transportation, to make moving around easier, but no more. I didn’t get why people would want fast cars when any Prius could go way over any speed limit in the country.

It wasn’t until I got my first car that I caught the car bug. It was a 1989 Geo Metro with a 5 speed. Shifting gears made me feel inclined in the process of driving, and I loved it. And here I am now, reading Jalopnik. I have a 2004 mazdaspeed miata with a rotary in it and a 1982 Rx-7. If I hadn’t gotten a manual tranny in my first car, who knows. I could have ended up with a rav4 or some shit.

I guess this isn’t about “that guy” in high school, it’s about the guy who went from uninterested to enthusiast.

Trevor had a 1968 Nova SS with a transplanted 454 that had been breathed on by the automotive gods. Trevor was great with a wrench and (unbeknownst to us) better with a gas pedal. Trevor was a quiet kid, had a few friends, never got in trouble, never shot off his mouth, and never ever ever raced his car.

One night (in the spring of 1988 at the ages of 17 - 19) we all went out to the local abandoned, straight, farm road and had our very own American Graffiti style drag races. We invited Trevor; honestly believing that he would watch, drop the flag, and keep track of who beat whom.

About 1/2 hour into the shenanigans Trevor asked if anybody wanted to have a pass with him. My own car was a ‘65 Mustang Hi-Pro, my friend Drew had an IROC Camaro, Jeff had a ‘74 Corvette LS4, Colin had a Roadrunner with a Hemi &a 6 Pack. Jeff stepped up and said “I’ll go.” Trevor owned him.

And then, Trevor owned everybody.

If we had been racing for pink slips, Trevor would have had a stable of cars that night. It was epic. And for that evening, our quiet, gearhead friend Trevor, was King.

She wasn’t a “car girl”, but I had a few fairly rich people in my high school. One of them was a girl in my home room class, whose father bought her a brand new Mercedes when she turned 16 (or actually before). I think it would have been a W124 and if memory serves it was blue.

She had it about a month and totaled it in a her-fault accident. I think that one she rear-ended another car.

So her father bought her another one, brand new.

She had that one a few months before she wrapped it around a tree in a one-car accident. Totaled.

So her father bought her another one, brand new.

She had that one until the beginning of senior year, when she launched it so fast over a hill in the rain that she broke it on landing (Dukes-of-Hazzard style in my mind, but I wasn’t there) to the point where it was totaled and unfixable.

So her father bought her another one.

But that one was used.

USED! Used, people! She had to drive a USED Mercedes. Can you imagine?

The complaining went on for weeks.

That car survived high school as far as I know.

(There was another guy whose father gave him his old 911 when he turned 16, and it was promptly wrapped around a tree as well. But that kid got a crap-box after that, which is slightly better.)

I went to a high school where the tuition was more expensive than my out of state college tuition so I went to school with a handful of rich kids. They even put VIP parking spots at the front of the school and auctioned it off. I believe the selling price on those typically went about $800 per semester. Anyway, this rich kid with an M3 bought that spot. His car had carbon fiber lips, an APR Wing, supposedly putting down about 550hp at the wheels. About 2 months into watching him drive around in that thing like a maniac, I spot him drifting around a roundabout. I talk some shit about him and go on with my day (tbh I was jealous of his M3). Next day I hear he dropped it into a ditch and the car got totaled. Next week he rolls into school in a brand new BMW 335i. I guess that’s one way to punish your kid... an “embarrassing” downgrade. A couple weeks later he’s posting pictures of his Ferrari F430...... fucking rich kids...

Kelso, from That 70's Show, could have been loosely based on ZEd; his mannerisms, his look, and slightly goofy attitude. ZEd, on the contrary, was actually pretty bright.

ZEd had the pretty girlfriends.

ZEd didn’t really drink but was naturally inebriated and is probably an attribute which helped him get the girls.

ZEd was into rock and roll, particularly Led Zeppelin which is how he initially got his nickname because there wasn’t a day that would go by where ZEd wasn’t wearing a Led Zeppelin t-shirt.

ZEd also was our resident car guy. He had a black Mustang 5.0 which “could easily catch 3rd”. He could leave a church’s parking lot on Sunday afternoon after the congregation was let out to demonstrate this in front of God and everyone if they had their doubts. Can I get an “Amen!”?

Yes, ZEd’s pinnacle namesake came when he strolled up one day in a blue Chevy Cavalier. No, not any Cavalier. It was a Z24. It was blue. And, it too, could “easily catch 3rd”. How he caught Lisa, his hot, blonde girlfriend at the time with eyes as blue as his car is beyond me and something I struggle with, even to this day.

A high school classmate got an offer from his parents: break 1200 on the SAT, just once, and get any car you want. Any car. Literally any car. And 1200, not a 1600 or anything. He spent a lot of time weighing his options: NSX vs Ferrari. Had the brochures and went to the dealerships and everything. So much time that he never broke 1200 on the SAT.

Then there was the girl who alternated between driving a Rolls and a — wait for it — Grand Wagoneer.